Chapter 66
People hurried along the streets, almost all quickening their pace. The city patrolmen were shouting orders, and a tense atmosphere permeated the air.
"Sir, there is only one granary that has not been sealed off yet, and we have already sent people over there."
Upon hearing this, the man waved for him to go down first, then put the sack weighing over 100 pounds back in place. As if remembering something, he dusted off his hands and called the person who came to report back, saying, "Remember, put them all on the elevated platform."
The man nodded vigorously, readily agreeing.
Just as I finished what I was doing, another urgent message came in, saying that several wealthy households, along with some well-known elders in Muyun City, were planning to build a Plague God Temple at this time to send the Plague God back.
While the custom of building temples dedicated to the plague god is indeed present, the plague is no longer solely transmitted by fleas and animals; frequent gatherings among people make it easier for large-scale outbreaks of the plague to occur.
“This isn’t the time for purification rituals; it’s just adding to the chaos,” a servant couldn’t help but say.
Everyone is now mobilizing to help, delivering medicine door-to-door to prevent people from gathering together and to prevent another outbreak. We already don't have enough manpower, and now we're going to build a temple. It's a waste of money and it's just causing people mental distress.
Song Junwu took a deep breath and replied softly, "Let's go take a look first."
At this moment, Song Chaoli and Yinglian reunited. "Where is the Second Prince?"
Song Chaoli tiptoed to hang the mugwort and mint in her hand outside the door frame, saying nonchalantly, "She thought I was too much trouble and went to do the work by herself."
After saying that, she shouted into the house, "Put all the clothes in hot water and boil them! You know, put some mugwort in."
After finishing these tasks, he took the herbs from Yinglian's hands and started walking towards the next household. "Shouldn't we go and help them?"
"No need, we just need to do our own jobs well."
Before he could reply, a commotion broke out ahead. As he approached, he heard Song Chaohua's icy voice, "Do you believe I'll kill you?"
"Oh dear," Song Chaoli chuckled to himself, clearly gloating at the sight.
It turned out that someone from this family had come out, but they had just walked right into the line of fire. Although the man was terrified, he still insisted on going forward until the gleaming knife tip was pressed against his neck. Only then did he stop in his tracks and step back. He needed to get medicine to save the person! There was no way he could stay put, so the two of them were stuck there.
Song Chaoli walked very fast, and Yinglian, who arrived late, quickly grabbed her hand and tried to pull her forward, saying, "Don't look anymore, let's go help her!" Obviously, the former didn't want to, but she couldn't resist the strong pull beside her, and she still ended up in front of the two people facing off.
"My mother is dying! If I don't buy some medicine, am I just going to watch her die?"
"The pharmacy is not open right now," Song Chaohua replied simply.
The man believed that the door would open even if he knocked, and he would buy the medicine even if he had to run all over Muyun City. Hearing his request, Yinglian quickly opened her medicine box and said that he could come and get whatever medicine he needed.
However, everyone knew in their hearts that those who contracted the disease could only wait to die. The imperial physicians had not yet prepared a medicine, and Qingyun had only given them a liquid to kill the lice. At this time, drinking the medicine was merely a psychological comfort.
"I'm not a doctor! How would I know what medicine to use? I need to go and call a doctor."
The noise they were making had already attracted the attention of the neighbors, and many of them were calling for a doctor to come over, saying that it was unacceptable to keep people locked up at home.
"Does this mean we can get cured without leaving the house? Without a doctor to treat us, we're just going to die here!"
"My wife has also contracted this. We need to call a doctor to come and take a look to determine what it is!"
Seeing that someone was speaking up for him, the man hurriedly tearfully recounted his mother's condition at home, saying that if they weren't even allowed to call a doctor, they would just have to suffer and die here.
Seeing the shouts rising and falling, and the scene about to get out of control, Song Chaoyun simply glanced left and right out of the corner of her eye, then scrutinized the agitated man. With a calm expression, she put down the knife in her hand and said slowly, "Then go."
Everyone around was stunned. They had thought it would be a fight to the death, but seeing the man standing there, Song Chaoyun gently patted his face with the blade of his knife, raised an eyebrow and smiled, "I'll let you go."
The question is, do they dare? Men are like that; no matter where they are, they always act all self-absorbed and sentimental. I'm tired of it all. Song Chaoyun sheathed his knife, turned, and walked away. The two, equally stunned, then reacted. Yinglian pointed at the man, about to speak, but Song Chaoli succinctly revealed the truth.
"Let's not even talk about whether he can get out of here."
There are Song Junwu's soldiers guarding the outside. If you really run away, they won't be so easy to talk to Song Chaoyun.
Besides, would anyone be so shrewd as to assess the situation? Who would take such a risk at this time? It's like now, someone sneaks out and knocks on the doctor's door, but no one opens it. Only the other person's voice comes from inside, "Wife, please go back quickly. I still have a wife, mother, and children at home. This illness looks like a deadly plague to me! It's incurable!"
Moreover, there's no way to treat it; we've never seen anything like it before.
"Sir! Please open the door! At least give me a prescription!"
The man had already made his words so resolute, yet the other party still persisted. Ultimately, being a healer at heart, he sighed softly, went back inside to prepare a decoction—actually just some mild tonics—wrapped it in a small bundle, and tossed it out from the corner of the wall. "I don't need your money anymore. Go back quickly! Don't let yourself catch a cold!"
The woman who received the medicine was overjoyed, as if she had received a life-saving elixir. She hurriedly hugged the medicine to her chest, knelt down, and thanked the doctor. She stood up, wiped away her tears, and finally a smile appeared on her pale and haggard face.
Inside the command post, the main hall was filled with people, whispering and discussing something.
"Everyone is waiting for you," a servant whispered.
Song Junwu lowered her eyes, took the handkerchief and carefully wiped her hands, saying "I understand," before casually tossing the handkerchief onto the servant's shoulder.
"Who wants to build a temple at this time?" The man threw down a short knife, the tip pointing downwards and nailing it straight to the table. The blade was still trembling from inertia. His handsome eyebrows were filled with deep disgust. He didn't even bother to lift his eyelids. He sat down with an air of superiority and then glanced at everyone. "Then let's sacrifice our lives to the plague god and send him off first."
After saying that, he chuckled, with a hint of mockery, "I suppose inscribing it with one's life would be more sincere than building a temple."
Many people in the city tried to sneak out, but the city gates had long been guarded, with people stationed at both the west and east gates. Although the south gate was a small gate with few people, Song Chaoyun's tent was located there, so no one would be foolish enough to try to escape right under their noses.
Song Chaohua and the other two were spreading sulfur and lime on the waterways and roads along the way. After Song Junwu finished dealing with the old men, he also had to personally lead people to block the holes of various sizes. Because many reports came that there was also this plague in the villages, even more serious than in Muyun City, most of the troops were sent there.
Unlike Muyun City, the village roads are mostly interconnected, and some people always manage to escape by taking unknown shortcuts. Some people, for reasons unknown, actually tried to invite Taoist priests to perform rituals, and ended up capturing quite a few villagers who had escaped along the way.
With mud-covered hands, he lifted the tree root from the pit, held it in his hand, and quickly shaved off the bitten parts with a knife. Then he took out a small earthenware jar he was carrying, which contained fungicide. This step was mainly for disinfection. After doing all this, he evenly spread a layer of wood ash and covered it with dry grass to avoid direct exposure to strong sunlight.
Furthermore, they also deliberately placed an ultrasonic rodent repeller, which they bought at a high price from the system, in the small, unsealed hole. It was a rip-off, but they still obediently placed it there.
The soil, which was filled with mud, contained mothballs. During this time, someone was sent to deliver some to Song Junwu and the others, instructing them to give some to each person and place them on the streets. Meanwhile, the others on the sand dunes used mint water mixed with mud, which was also an ancient method of repelling rats.
Qingyun did want to save lives, but what she had wasn't enough to buy medicine to treat the plague patients, and each item was prohibitively expensive. She wanted the system to ask the administrator for a discount. The system also asked her why she didn't use her points to buy some medicine to save lives first.
At first, she saw that the number of confirmed cases was not large, and they were all mild cases. To be honest, she was willing to admit that she wanted to save Shu first. After all, they were in a game world, and these people were all NPCs. Besides, the price of medicine was too high, and she had to wait for the system to negotiate. One medicine was not enough to cure a person. At least one course of treatment was needed, and the speed of relief was not as fast as the deterioration.
She wasn't afraid of being called heartless for not taking the time to save lives.
With a "thud," a wooden bucket filled with lime was placed in front of Qingyun. Looking up, he saw a woman standing to the side. Judging from her face, it was Lin Wanjun. She gestured to Qingyun that he could go and do other things first, and that she would take care of the rest.
"Okay," she nodded in agreement, then took out a handful of mothballs from the cloth bag tied around her waist and put them into the other person's pocket.
"Oh, right," Lin Wanjun called out to her, "the things you wanted are all piled up over there."
Qingyun looked in the direction the finger was pointing and saw a pile of firewood that was almost as big as a small mountain. He was stunned for a moment and his brows furrowed slightly. Just as he was about to speak, he heard the other person's explanation, "The villagers brought it here on their own initiative. However, this is all they could collect because everyone is not allowed to come out now."
Hearing what the other party said, Qingyun also felt that apart from the people he had called earlier, there were very few people on the sand dunes. Some death row inmates were also sent over, but without a foreman to keep an eye on them, they were all lazy. Thinking of this, he wondered what was wrong with Mu Helian.
"You should also be careful. Everyone should cover their faces," Qingyun couldn't help but remind him.
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